1. Technical Fields
This invention relates generally to a dual powered bicycle and more particularly to a device for using the rider's arms to supplement power provided by his natural or prosthetic legs pedaling a bicycle to propel the rear wheel as it travels over the ground.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Human powered vehicles employing many different designs for providing human energy to cause movement of the rider's vehicle have been developed and used throughout the ages. These types of vehicles have been used in many activities, including but not limited to sports, riding to work or store, movement of goods and passengers in commerce, physical exercise or other task. The types of vehicles that can utilize the benefits of a combined arm and leg powered crank axle include, but are not limited to, bicycles, tandem bicycles, tricycles, human powered airplanes, human powered helicopters, and water craft.
Current and past variations of combined arm and leg powered vehicles have embraced rotating hand cranks, pumping handle bars “up and down” or “back and forth” over the stem of the bicycle, moving one arm in one direction and the other arm in the opposite direction simultaneously, connection of the moving handle bars directly to rotating pedals or cranks, and the use of systems containing rods, gears, and racks connecting the moving handle bars to the crank axle. An example of this is U.S. Pat. No. 7,413,206.
Other variants from the present invention have provided the ability to obtain only 50% of the available arm power being transferred into rotating crank axle, versus the 100% of arm power which can be obtained by use of this invention, as described herein. An example of this prior art is U.S. Pat. No. 5,328,195, in which a cable is attached to a moveable handle bar that moves “up and down” in unison with a curling action of the rider's arms and hands. Because U.S. Pat. No. 5,328,195 uses only a flexible cable by itself to transfer power from the pumping arm bars to the crank axle, arm power is delivered to the crank axle only during the single condition in which the rider is “pulling-up” on the rotating handle bars and thus pulling-up on the cable. U.S. Pat. No. 5,328,195 does not provide for any power from the rider being delivered to the crank axle when the forearms and hands of the rider are “pushing down” on the movable forearm/hand bars during his “up and down” cycle. This is because standard cables, which are not sliding inside a stationary cable sheath, only provide significant power in the “Pull” mode, and not in the “Compression” mode. With this cable geometry of the cable moving by itself, and not sliding within a stationary sheath, the rider's downward stroke on the forearm bars during this “compression” mode is like pushing on a string, and hence no power can be delivered to the forward rotation of the crank axle during the “down” stroke of the “up and down” cycle. In fact, U.S. Pat. No. 5,328,195 describes an automatic rewind mechanism for the cable during the down stroke thus ensuring that no human power is generated to propel the bicycle forward during the “down” stroke cable movement in the “up and down” cycle of the bicycle's pumping arm/hand bars.
While some of these various types of Dual Powered vehicles have had modest acceptance in the marketplace, they have been deficient because they cause excess resistance and friction-loss in transmitting energy from the moving handle bars to the crank axle, they are clumsy to operate, they only provide energy into the crank axle during the pulling or upward movement of the handle bars, and at high speeds some of the designs can cause the rider's control of the bicycle to be unstable.
The purpose of this invention is to remedy all of the afore-described deficiencies in the prior art.